Outlier's Role

Integrate the client’s custom MES software into their pilot facility in order to enable Product Material Genealogy tracking, batch material and recipe tracking, and to integrate real-time data collected from their equipment to provide data analysis capabilities along with the context of their manufacturing history.
 

TECHNOLOGIES

  • Ignition SCADA with the following modules:
    • Vision
    • Perspective
    • SQL Bridge (Transaction Groups)
    • Tag Historian
    • Reporting
    • Jython Scripting Packages
  • Manufacturing Digital Traceability & Product Genealogy
  • MySQL, TrinoDB Databases
  • Clickhouse Database Management System
  • gRPC Universal Remote Procedure Call framework
  • Allen-Bradley Powerflex VFD
  • Allen-Bradley CompactLogix
  • Siemens S7-1200
  • Siemens G120 VFD
  • Mitsubishi MELSEC
  • Moxa Modbus RTU to TCP Gateway
 

SITUATION

Our client’s facility contained a variety of new and used equipment from various OEMs and industrial automation vendors. Their operations team was manually calculating and recording test recipes and results on paper travelers. Their team struggled to verify the accuracy of the data and determine what conditions their manufacturing tests were run under.

SOLUTION

Outlier designed and implemented a digitalized operations workflow which allowed our client’s Operations staff and Engineers to operate, record, and analyze their manufacturing line production which included 10 batch processes with a mixture of manual, semi-automatic, and automated equipment.

CASE STUDY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Outlier introduced tablet-based barcode scanning, serialized label printing, and electronic recipes for the Operations staff to track and verify the material and process conditions for each experimental study.

  • Outlier created an extensive web browser-based Recipe Interface and Data Analytics Dashboard for Engineers to monitor operations and detect real-time issues without needing to enter the PPE-controlled manufacturing floor.

  • Outlier specified communication upgrades to the client’s used equipment, which allowed previously unconnected equipment to centrally log data and provided time-series process data in context-based dashboards with the conditions of each manufacturing batch.